TORONTO, April 6, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today announced submissions are open for the 10th annual Air Canada enRoute Film Festival. Emerging Canadian filmmakers are invited to showcase their artistic talent, out-of-the-box thinking and compelling vision in this year's festival that includes a star-studded jury, a cash prize and a chance to travel to the Berlin International Film Festival to have their film screened at the European Film Market.

"Air Canada is excited to be launching the Air Canada enRoute Film Festival's 10th year. The festival has received more than 1,600 submissions in the past decade," said Éric Lauzon, Manager, Multimedia Entertainment, Air Canada. "We look forward to seeing this year's engaging and creative submissions; with the selected entries joining the more than 100 Canadian short films showcased by the festival on Air Canada planes over the past 10 years."

The winner of Best Short Film will receive a $5,000 cash prize courtesy of presenting sponsor Cineplex Entertainment. Other awards include Achievement in Direction, Achievement in Cinematography, Achievement in Animation, Achievement in Documentary and People's Choice Award. Achievement Award supporters include, the Directors Guild of Canada, William F. White International Inc., the National Film Board of Canada and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

All Achievement Award winners will receive an all-inclusive trip to the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, courtesy of Air Canada. Winners will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase their short films in Telefilm Canada's Not Short on Talent program, which will screen at the European Film Market.

A handpicked jury from the Canadian film industry, consisting of highly prominent celebrities, producers and directors, will select the winning films. Previous jury members include Don McKellar, Catherine O'Hara, Denis Villeneuve, Jean-Marc Vallée, Guy Maddin, Laura Vandervoort, Alison Pill, Sarah Gadon, Suzanne Clément, Tatiana Maslany, Atom Egoyan and Donald Sutherland, among many others. An all-star jury for this year's festival, composed of returning members from the past decade, will be announced in July.

Winning films will be broadcast on the Air Canada enRoute Inflight Entertainment system, viewed by millions of Air Canada customers around the world each month. Roster events to honour participants will take place throughout the country, starting with a networking reception in Calgary on April 16 presented by the TELUS Optik Local Fund and STORYHIVE. Later events will be announced for other Canadian cities.

The Air Canada enRoute Film Festival supporters include Cineplex Entertainment, TELUS Optik Local / STORYHIVE, ETALK, Spafax, Entertainment One, Telefilm Canada, Directors Guild of Canada, William F. White International Inc., National Film Board of Canada and Hot Docs.

Do you think you have what it takes? View full festival rules and regulations and submit your film at www.enroutefilm.com. Submissions will be accepted until May 31, 2016.

About Air Canada enRoute Inflight Entertainment: Air Canada enRoute Inflight Entertainment offers over 600 hours of on-demand entertainment available free of charge at the touch of a finger. Its gate-to-gate in-flight entertainment programming features up to 150 movies in all genres, including the latest Hollywood and independent titles produced locally and internationally in more than 20 languages, up to 200 TV shows including the most popular TV series, interesting documentaries and our very own ACTV channel, over 100 albums and playlists in all musical genres and entertaining and informative audio books and podcasts. Air Canada enRoute In-Flight Entertainment is programmed by Spafax, one of the world's leading custom publishers and providers of in-flight media, with offices in fourteen cities around the world. Spafax is a part of the specialist communications division of WPP. http://enroute.aircanada.com/

About Air Canada:

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 200 airports on six continents. Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2015 served more than 41 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 63 airports in Canada, 56 in the United States and 86 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,330 airports in 192 countries. Air Canada rewards its most loyal customers through its top tier recognition program, Altitude, that offers frequent flyers a range of priority travel services, lounge access and upgrades to Executive Class, complementing their membership in Aeroplan, Canada's premier loyalty program, which provides numerous ways to earn and redeem Aeroplan Miles with over 150 travel and retail partners.

Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax. According to the 2015 Canadian Business Travel Survey conducted by Ipsos Reid, Air Canada was the preferred airline for more than 80 percent of frequent business travellers in Canada. In 2014, readers of Global Traveler magazine again voted Air Canada "Best Airline in North America," the readers of Business Traveler voted Air Canada "Best North American Airline for International Travel" and "Best North America Airline Inflight Experience," and the readers of Premier Traveler voted Air Canada "Best Flight Attendants in North America." For more information on Air Canada visit aircanada.com, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.

SOURCE Air Canada's enRoute

For further information: For interview requests or high-res photography, please contact: Phil Birnbaum, Spafax at phil.birnbaum@spafax.com or 647-789-7297; Isabelle Arthur, Manager - Media Relations and Air Canada Foundation, at isabelle.arthur@aircanada.ca or 514.422.5788